NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni announced on Feb. 1 a "sweeping" ban
on consulting and other activities employees may engage in
outside of their federal jobs. The new ethics regulations — which
apply not only to NIH's approximately 5,000 intramural scientists,
but also to every federal employee at the agency — took
effect on Feb. 3, the day they were published in the Federal
Register.
M
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Changing the LandscapeNIH
To Make 'Public Access' Effective May 2

By Rich McManus

After a long period of public comment and controversy, NIH
made official on Feb. 3 its intent to create an online public
archive of the research it funds. Starting May 2, the National
Library of Medicine's PubMed Central will host an electronic,
searchable database of peer-reviewed journal articles funded
by NIH money within 12 months of the articles' appearance
in print, but preferably as soon as possible. NIH-funded investigators
will be asked, not required, to post their manuscripts to
PMC so that citizen-taxpayers will have free access to the
work their money has purchased. M
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